Miscarriage and Stillbirth Grief: Page 12

        TIPS FOR COPING:

        Bar Divider

        ESTABLISHING THE EXISTENCE OF BABY.

        Here are a few tips that other Bereaved Parents have used to help them cope with the loss of their precious baby through Miscarriage or Stillbirth.

        FROM THE HOSPITAL:

        • Ask for the Ultra-sound Photos.
        • Ask for a copy of the baby's death certificate.
        • Collect all Bereavement and Sympathy cards.
        • Collect all of Baby's labels and hospital tags.
        • Ask for any Photos that caring hospital staff may have taken of your baby. In the main South Australian maternity hospitals, some caring staff have a Polaroid Camera and always take photos of the babies after death. The babies are wrapped in baby blankets with just their head showing. The photos are placed in the mother's hospital file until they are requested.
        • Some Bereaved Parents have commissioned a Portrait Artist to paint a picture of their baby.
        These can be mounted in a large Picture or Photo Frame with name and any other details printed that helps identify your precious baby. These can be displayed with other family photos so that other family, relatives and friends can see them.

        NAME YOUR BABY:

        • Even through your baby has died, he or she existed for a short period of time.
        • Give your baby the name that you had chosen.
        • If your baby has died before the sex can be determined, always go with the mother's feeling or belief that she was carrying a baby boy or baby girl. Over many years of assisting Bereaved Parents, I have found that most mothers intuitively know or believe they know the sex of their baby. I have always suggested that they follow that belief, and they have all been comfortable with that suggestion.
        • Frame a Certificate of Namegiving suitably inscribed with your baby's details and place with family photos. Click on the Next Button below to see a sample Certificate.

        REMEMBERANCE:

        Some Bereaved Parents have remembered their babies through the following. Only choose those suggestions that you are comfortable with.

        • Plant a Tree, Shrub or Rose bush in the Garden in memory of your Baby.
        • Press some of the flowers that you received when your baby died, arrange them on backing paper and frame them.
        • Write a letter to your baby. Something special between you.
        • Write a Poem about your baby.
        • Write down your baby's story icluding your pregnancy, delivery, etc.
        • Anniversaries: Exchange cards on baby's "birthday." Mother's Day and Father's Day.
        • Christmas: Place a Card or Name Tag for your baby on the Christmas tree. Some parents have purchased a special "Angel Doll" to go on the top of the Tree in memory of their baby.
        • Keep one of the toys or Teddy Bears purchased for baby and have a printed name tag tied to the toy. This can be displayed with other Family keepsakes.


        Bar Divider


        If you wish to return to the Contents page, click on the button below.

        Contents

        Back Next


1